Menifee school lunches to be discussed

MENIFEE -- Frustrated with numerous unpaid lunch accounts and
fed up with eating the costs, Menifee school officials are
considering several options to get parents to ante up.

About one-third of the 3,200 Menifee children who regularly eat
lunches at district schools have delinquent accounts, or about
1,134, said Dan Wood, assistant superintendent of the Menifee Union
School District.

Wood said it's not so much the amount of the past-due accounts,
about $1,728, that's a problem, but dealing with the sheer number
of children who owe money.

He said officials have tried making phone calls and sending
letters to parents -- both very time-consuming -- and even changed
the alternate meals that are provided to children who can't pay
into a more spartan option.

Although children now are faced with eating only carrot and
celery sticks, a roll and milk if they can't pay, the district's
efforts to crack down on the problem have not worked, he said.

"I think it's part of a growing trend," he said. "It's a very
large number (of accounts) to deal with."

Officials say they're trying to balance compassion with their
need to enforce the rules, but compassion doesn't seem to be
working.

Trustee Bob O'Donnell said the issue is one of responsibility --
schools teach children they must be accountable for their actions,
and that includes bringing money if they want to eat lunch.

He said he will suggest at an upcoming board meeting that school
officials set up appointments with parents to discuss the matter,
which is done in certain discipline cases.

"What we've been doing isn't working, that's for sure," he
said.

Children can get the alternate meal three times, and then
they're cut off. That decision, along with taking away the cheese
sandwich in the alternate meal, was made about a year ago, although
some board members were hesitant about providing such a meager
lunch option.

Officials now are considering not offering any alternate meal,
and also are looking into starting an automated calling system that
would contact parents informing them of the debt, Wood said.

The system, which could cost up to $15,000, would not be
implemented unless it could be used for other purposes, such as
sending messages to parents about days off, Wood said.

"We're just beginning that investigation," he said. "We would
only do it if we could use (the phone system) for a much broader
application."